Our son has severe food allergies. Severe.
But most of the time we don't even notice. You stay away from those foods and that's it. You live in perfect health as long as you don't touch those foods. It's a normal life - for the most part.
So, what was so scary??? Let me sum up. It's a long story.
We were at Villa Sport today to watch the TCU game.
Our car had a flat as we pulled into the partking lot.
My father in law followed Patrick to a tire place, and brought him back to Villa.
It is New Years, and apparently with the holiday and all the ice (slide off into curbs???) the shop was backed up for FOUR hours.
We now have four young kids, no diapers, and no food from home 'trapped' at Villa for four hours.
For the first two the kids play in the play area.
Then we pick them up and they are pretty good, but HUNGRY.
There are free chips, salsa, and chex mix in the cafe. We eat some.
The kids are still hungry and we have a LONG way to go.
We go 'a-shopping' in the cafe for food. We find that Alex (food allergies) can have the chicken nuggets or a Clif bar. I vote for Clif bar, because if you've seen Food Inc, you would too.....but the nuggets won out.
Anyway.... guess what??? They made a mistake. A big one. Alex was allergic to something in the nuggets. The breading, I'm guessing... probably had egg or milk in it. Most of them do.
I still don't have a car.
I don't have an Epi-pen.
I don't even have Benadryl.
I don't even have my purse with us.
UGH. I am now a super stress ball. My son is spitting in a toilet (what he does when he feels his throat tightening up). He face is turning red.
Eventually he starts to wheeze. This is bad.
At this point Patrick is already on his way to get the car.
There is an Epi-pen (the thing that will save his life) in the car.
I consider calling an ambulance.
I think, that even if I do, Patrick will get there sooner. He is, afterall, just across the street. He just has to pay for the tires and cross the stoplight. Please don't let it be red!!! You know how emergencies are though... every second feels like an eternity.
AND, as if a child in danger isn't enough, my four year old with a bladder the size of a pea, is now screaming bloody murder that she has to use the bathroom.
I fill a Villa staff member in, he watches Alex.
I run to the bathroom with the girl.
I get back and Patrick runs in... with a tire repair kit.
(it was a fast scrambling around in a dark messy car - it was under a seat, and you know.. you just start running)
(This is probably, in hindsight the only light part of the evening... but since we still had an emergency going on, it wasn't funny at the time.)
I ran back out to the car (running on ice is interesting) and grab the Pen and run back inside.
I read the directions to Patrick (it's a shot).
Oh, and we've never had to use one of these before. It's freaky.
You have to take the safety cap off and JAM it into your child's thigh and then hold it there for 10 seconds.
Patrick did the shot, thankfully.
Poor Alex, he couldn't breathe, but he sure screamed!!
I was bascially crying. I was just holding him and loving him, and trying not to freak out.
Oh, and somewhere during this, I lost the baby. Well, in all the commotion, my father in law ended up coming back to Villa, and there he was - holding Talia. Phew. She could have wandered off into the parking lot for all I know.... we were a bit consumed. You would have been too.....
Instantly Alex was doing better.
That was the freaky-est thing EVER. Your children have a capacity to scare you like nothing else. A nuclear bomb threat... oh... it's okay. We have a shelter. A giant gorilla is lose in town?? No worries. Your child has something going on??? OMG... call in the national guard and get everyone you know praying!!
We get home and put him in bed, and now his eye is swelling and his whole upper body has hives. We hit him with Benadryl and let him play Wii while we 'watch' him.
I'm typing this now, with him in bed, and all seems well. The swelling is going down. He can breathe. But... um... I'm not sure I'll sleep tonight. I'll be up for awhile... so if you want to call.... I'm sure I'll be up! But you may just get the re-cap on this story again... so you may not actually want to call! ;)
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